Adele wins six Grammy awards

Adele won six Grammy awards, sweeping the major categories of song, record and album of the year, on a night the music industry mourned the loss of singer Whitney Houston.

Adele's 21 was named album of the year, and Rolling in the Deep won song and record of the year at the 54th Grammy Awards last night from Los Angeles.

Foo Fighters won five awards including best rock album, and Kanye West took home four including best rap album for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Houston's death at 48 on February 11th in Beverly Hills, California, sent a shock through the music industry and muted the celebratory nature of the year's biggest awards show.

Artists honoured her from the stage, and Jennifer Hudson performed a simple tribute with I Will Always Love You on a stage darkened except for a soft spotlight.

"We have had a death in our family," host LL Cool J said at the programme's outset. "The only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer, for a woman who we loved, for our fallen sister, Whitney Houston."

Adele, the British singer-songwriter whose last name is Adkins, tied Beyonce's record for most Grammy wins in one night by a female artist, according to the Recording Academy website.

She also won best pop vocal album for 21 and was honoured with best pop solo performance for Someone Like You.

"This record is really inspired by what just about everyone has gone through," Adele said after 21 was named album of the year.

On the show, Adele sang Rolling in the Deep, her first performance since undergoing vocal cord surgery last year. She credited her co-writer, producer Paul Epworth, saying, "he brought me out of my skin to write this record."

The TV audience for the awards show soared to 39 million viewers, its second largest ever audience, and the biggest since 1984.

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band opened the show with the single We Take Care of Our Own, from the album Wrecking Ball, due out in the US on March 6th.

The surviving Beach Boys, reunited for a 50th anniversary tour, played Good Vibrations. Two other Southern California bands, Maroon 5 and Foster the People, played Surfer Girl and Wouldn't It Be Nice.

Paul McCartney played My Valentine from his new album, Kisses on the Bottom.

Hudson's tribute to Houston came near the end of the three-hour show. Houston, who made I Will Always Love You famous playing the role of a pop diva in The Bodyguard, earned three Grammys in 1993 for the movie soundtrack, including album of the year.

Houston's first Grammy came in 1985 for her vocal performance of Saving All My Love for You.

She won the same award in 1987 for I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me). She received a Grammy for best female RandB vocal performance for It's Not Right But It's Okay in 1999.

Houston won six Grammys in a career slowed by drugs and alcohol. She was found unresponsive February 11th in her room at the Beverly Hilton hotel, where she was planning to attend the annual pre-Grammys party held by Clive Davis, the Arista Records founder.

Sales of her albums have soared with her death. Whitney - The Greatest Hits was the top album at Apple Inc's ITunes online store. Two others were in the top 10.

Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. was named best R&B album. Lady Antebellum's Own the Night won best country album. Bon Iver was named best new artist.

In addition to West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, distributed by Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, he and Jay-Z won the best rap performance Grammy for Otis from Watch the Throne.

West, a previous winner of 14 Grammys, also won the best rap song and best rap/sung collaboration for All of The Lights.

As West dominated rap, Foo Fighters swept major rock categories.

Wasting Light was named best rock album, and the band, formed by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, took best rock song and best rock performance for Walk, and best hard rock/metal performance for White Limo.

The album Tassili by the African band Tinariwen, which was mixed former Frames guitarist David Odlum, picked up the accolade for best world music album.